Port Elizabeth of Yore: The Growth of the Population

Prior to the arrival of the 1820 Settlers, it would have been an exaggeration to claim that Port Elizabeth was sparsely populated as that was an overstatement of the facts. Indeed, it was mostly depopulated. Apart from a dozen farmers in the whole area from the Sunday’s River to the Gamtoos River, there was an understrength company of soldiers based at Fort Frederick and thirty-five inhabitants mainly residing along the coast at the foot the Hill.

Main picture: Port Elizabeth in 1833

At the dawn of the Settler’s Arrival

According to JJ Redgrave, in the years prior to the arrival of the 1820 Settlers, “the land was devoid of inhabitants and as new arrivals entered upon it, they had an understanding among themselves about locations and boundaries. The extent of a “farm” in those days occupied by a family varied from four to six thousand acres.

In his book The Cape Colony and the Eastern Province of Algoa Bay, John Centlivres Chase states that in 1820, “the only buildings were the fort, a small barracks, a mess-house, the Commandant’s quarters, and a few temporary huts of perishable materials [probably wattle and daub], besides the original farm house belonging to a Boer by the name of Hartman. The population was about 35 souls.

At this stage, the hamlet had nothing to commend itself and did not even possess a formal name. It was during a visit by the acting Governor of the Cape Colony, Sir Rufane Donkin in 1820 whilst assisting with the planning for the location of the Settlers, that he issued two momentous instructions. At his behest a pyramidal cenotaph as a perpetual token to his recently deceased wife would be constructed and secondly that the name of the wind-swept area was proclaimed as Port Elizabeth, also in her honour.
Redgrave describes the other residences and buildings apart from those of a military nature as follows:

“There existed a mere handful of other miserable dwellings. The Residency, a squat stone building with a sundial in front of it, stood at the foot of the present White’s Road on the site of the Colonial Mutual Buildings, a cottage occupied by the Commissary of Stores, on the site of the present St. Mary’s Church. A little above Hartman Road, stood the poor farmhouse of Hartman with a few other similar farms and mud huts scattered here and there”

Fort Frederick

Apart from the military, the hamlet consisted of only 35 people. The exact details of the population were recorded by a visitor to this nondescript village in 1819.

In this document, a Mr. Griffin Hawkins listed the names and occupations of the inhabitants in an unofficial census as follows:

Evatt, Francis Commandant

Henry His son

Creig Commissary

Camm His clerk

Nicholl & Chabaud Merchants

Welsford Retailer

Benjamin Green His clerk

Hunt Retailer

Frames Merchant

McPhail Mason

Board Contractor

Fortuin (Malay) Blacksmith

Nicholas Hitje Hotel-keeper [Red Lion Tavern]

Dunn, Gambol & son Postmaster

Burchell Apothecary [Chemist]

Gambol Hartman Field Cornet

Diesel & son Masons

Thomas Griffin Shoemaker

Brown Shoemaker

Gurney Boatman & crew

Smith Boatman & crew

Hatcheloven Butcher

Younger, John Surgeon

Younger, Thomas His brother

Mollineaux, Thomas Whalefisher

Reid, James Crew

De Mell, Joe Crew

Hubbard, Joe Crew

Kane Sawyer

La Harpe Retailer

Minto, Dr. Garrison surgeon

Hawkins, Griffin A visitor

Like most settlers, John Futter, a shoemaker, came ashore in Port Elizabeth en route to Grahamstown

1824 Census

A census of the town indicated that its population consisted of:

73

Men

30

Women

44

Boys

33

Girls

75

Khoikhoi

64

Slaves

Presumably the races of the men, women, boys and girls would include the white, the coloureds and the Malays all resident in Port Elizabeth. The 75 people classified as Khoikhoi were probably the misallocation of the local Fingoes, as the Blacks resident in the area were known. Surprisingly 64 people were classified as slaves.

Candle maker

The reason why the population of Port Elizabeth had only increased marginally in four years in spite of the influx of thousands of settlers was due to the fact that the Settlers were immediately relocated to the Eastern Border. Many of those that found farming condition too arduous or were bankrupted by drought or pestilence, drifted back to the towns in the area.

1825 Census

For the first time, Port Elizabeth gives the impression of having a population of a functioning village rather than a temporary settlement.

Within another ten years, the number of houses had risen to 100.

Prominent citizens in 1842

By 1842, it was no longer possible to list all the citizens in Port Elizabeth as Mr Hawkins had done in 1819. The best that John Centlivres could achieve in his book, is to list the names of the most prominent citizens in Port Elizabeth in 1842.

Whereas the initial list in 1819 of citizens reflected mainly occupations such as artisans and merchants, with the increased wealth of the citizenry, most of the prominent people now occupied sedentary clerical, supervisory and management positions.

Census in 1846

The census of the population of Port Elizabeth was taken on the 11th April 1846 for the purpose of ascertaining what amount of manpower could be mustered in case of a sudden attack on the town by hostile Xhosa hordes. For this purpose, the town was divided into nine wards and a few citizens were appointed to count the population, including the Hottentots and Coloureds.

The results were as follows:

PE’s population in 1904

In the intervening period of 85 years, from a fixed population of thirty five people in 1819, Port Elizabeth now had a population of 46, 576. The diamond mines in Kimberley and the gold mines on the Witwatersrand had surpassed Port Elizabeth in their growth.

Europeans 23,732

Coloureds 11,157

Natives 11,687

Total 46,576

St Augustine’s Catholic Church in 1904

2011 census

The Nelson Mandela Metro which now includes surrounding towns such as Uitenhage recorded a population of 1,152,115.

According to the Census, 60,1% of respondents described themselves as black African, 23,6% coloured, 14,4% white and 1,1% Indian/Asian

This makes Port Elizabeth the sixth most populous metropolitan area in South Africa.